Today’s Mantra: What goes up…must come down.
Yesterday I was too over whelmed to write. It has been a great week but it hit me that I haven’t slept a full night, with the two kids in the house, in six months.
That’s a long time without sleep.
Leo has been particularly fussy and some days it seems like he is getting worse at sleeping, not better. He is having shorter day naps and is not resettling. At night he is waking between two and six times. Sometimes just an hour after we’ve put him down.
I really, really enjoyed the first three months of my gorgeous baby. I loved cuddling, holding, rocking and just being with him. It was an adjustment period and it was going great. I relished the ability to turn my nose up at the rules (don’t rock, don’t coddle, etc) as I had done it all before and you can’t ruin a newborn.
However the lack of sleep and routine, in the last three months, has started to impact on the kids, me and my husband.
My household is all over the place. When’s lunch? Not sure. When’s dinner, sometimes 5, sometimes 6, sometimes 7. Bath or shower for the kids? Sometimes I do it at night, sometimes in the morning. Leo still sleeps with us, as we don’t want him to wake Julian. My husband, half the time, sleeps with Julian, as we don’t want Julian to wake Leo.
My husband has been doing really well at work and is starting to get real happiness out of it. I’m thrilled for him. Most days I’m doing really well at home and am happy to pitch in more so he can do so well… until I’m not.
I’m sure that is quite confusing to a husband who is at work all day and doesn’t quite know what to expect when he walks in the door.
Resolution….going forward (with some flexibility) we are going to have a schedule. We know who will be doing what and when, the kids will know what is coming next and have some consistency. Daniel and I will get our evenings and hopefully our sleep back.
I spoke to Leo about it today:
“Leo there are going to be some changes around here.”
“I’m not going to rock you any more.”
“Your going to have your milk at certain times.”
“You are going to be happier and sleep longer.”
“I’m going to love you just the same.”
Wish us luck!
Tonight is date night. I can’t wait to dress up, get out of the house and spend some quality time with my husband. Love you honey!
and did he agree to all the rules hon haha, where are you off to tonight and who has the wee ones ?
I had exactly the same experience with my Leo…until one day, I decided…enough, and introduced ‘the routine’. Amazingly…it worked, we had a 80% improvement. That was good enough for me! I wish you well x